


bloody secrets

by fluffysfics



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Finale spoilers, Gen, Phone Calls, Shipping is subtle, no happy endings here, past relationship mentioned, post Timeless Children, the Doctor is in prison, the Master isn’t dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23097460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffysfics/pseuds/fluffysfics
Summary: The Doctor is alone and abandoned in prison. She’s coming to terms with her past, little by little, until an old friend comes back from the dead to give her a phone call she isn’t even slightly prepared for.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 102





	bloody secrets

Prison was nowhere near as exciting as Earth movies made it seem. The Doctor had been stuck there for two days now, with little to do except idly sonic the door (useless, it was deadlock sealed) and think. 

She’d done a lot of thinking. Come to terms with things, for the most part. Her past self’s words had stuck with her, soothed her, calmed that horrible uncertainty in her that came with knowing that so much of her past was out of her reach. She could handle not knowing, for now, although eventually she knew there would come a time when her need for _answers_ started to burn the hearts out of her chest, and she’d have to go looking. 

Of course, she’d be a lot happier if she wasn’t stuck in prison. 

It was hard to keep track of the time, whether it was night or day. Eventually, though, there came a time when the Doctor realised that she hadn’t slept for...oh, it had to be at least a week and a half now. Oh dear. It was so terribly difficult to remember to take care of herself, when there was so much else on her mind. 

So, she laid down in the corner of the cell, using her coat as a pillow, and closed her eyes. 

And laid there. And laid there, and then laid there some more. 

Come on. She wasn’t nearly as troubled as she had been lately, back in her TARDIS with the Master’s threat that ‘everything she knew was a lie’ hanging over her. She knew the truth now. This just wasn’t _fair_. 

And then, just to add insult to injury, her phone rang. The Doctor sat up, rummaging through her coat pockets until she found the offending object, intending to silence it as soon as possible. The prison guards didn’t seem overly concerned with confiscating her belongings, but she didn’t want to take any risks. 

She checked the phone screen to see who was calling her, and immediately the device clattered to the floor, a strange sort of cold heat prickling through her limbs. 

_O_. 

The Doctor closed her eyes, taking a shaky breath. Then two. The phone was still ringing. She should have known, really, that he wasn’t dead. He was never dead, no matter what stupid, ridiculous, mortally dangerous situation he threw himself into. And...that was a relief to her, somehow. 

She reached for the phone, pressing the ‘answer’ button with one cautious finger. As if it might bite. 

“Master?”

“ _Doctor_.” His reply was instantaneous, his voice sharp and rough and yet...warmer than she’d expected. The Doctor remembered how he’d been back on Gallifrey, how there had been just a second before Ko Sharmus burst in where she had thought- really thought- that he needed help. Her help. She would have offered, if she’d had the chance. 

“Do I want to know how you’re alive?” She kept her voice down, drawing her legs in close against her chest. 

“Heh. I had a TARDIS parked in the Matrix chamber, Doctor, did you really think I wouldn’t? You can’t outwit me that easily.” The last sentence sounded almost desperate, if the Doctor had to put a word to it. If he didn’t have his intellectual superiority, what would he have? Nothing. He’d admitted that himself. She still didn’t quite know how she felt about that. About being so much _more_ than him. Was she really?

“Clever. Still always twenty seven steps ahead.” It was nice, to talk to the Master. To talk to anyone, after two days completely alone. “Except when you’re not.”

She heard a rush of static over the phone. A sigh. “And you’re still a sentimental idiot, Timeless Child or not. You couldn’t push that button. You never could. No matter what you said back on Gallifrey.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” The Doctor shrugged. That, of all things, was easy to admit. Rather a sentimental idiot than a mass murderer, any day. Or maybe just...she couldn’t kill _him_. That was a definite possibility, one that she was going to quietly repress for now. 

“Why are you in _prison_ , Doctor?” She sat up straight at that, confused, only to roll her eyes a moment later. Of course he was tracking her phone through the call. 

“Wish I knew. You’re the one with the TARDIS, you tell me what I’ve supposedly done.”

“You really think I’d tell you?” The Master laughed down the phone. It sounded hollow, without a hint of victory. The Doctor said nothing, heard keys clicking and buttons pressing on his end of the line. “Hm. Couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to. Your record’s redacted.”

The Doctor let her head thump lightly back against the wall. Of course it was. “Bloody Time Lords and their secrets,” she mumbled under her breath, and heard the Master give an amused snort on the other end of the line. 

“I’ve got all their secrets in my head now. Oh, there’s a lot in here, Doctor. Stuff that would make your hair turn white, crimes that would-“

“Ohh, shut _up_ , Master.” She wasn’t much in the mood for a monologue. 

“All the tests they did on you are in here too,” he purred, voice like molten lead pouring into her ear. “So many awful, _filthy_ things, Doctor. Do you want the details?”

“Not particularly. I’ll hang up on you if you start telling me.” 

That seemed to take the wind out of his sails a little. Good. 

“You’re no fun, Doctor. Do you know, they never bothered trying to find out where you came from? They just didn’t care.”

Oh. That made something twist in her stomach. She’d been trying as hard as she could to ignore the fact that she wasn’t Gallifreyan, that lost deep in her mind was a different home planet, one not even in this dimension. 

“I searched, though.” The Master’s voice was sinfully low, like he knew what those words would do to her even though he couldn’t see her. The Doctor drew in a breath, forehead pinching into a frown as she tried to get her feelings under control. 

“What did you find?”

He laughed at that, loud and maniacal. Sounding almost like his usual self. This was what the Master loved most, having an advantage over her. She’d robbed him of that on Gallifrey, reduced him to begging on his knees for her to end both of their lives, sink to his level, prove to him that they were still equals. And she had refused. 

“Why should I tell you, Doctor? No- no, no, actually. Actually, I want to hear you beg. Beg me to tell you.” 

“You’re insufferable.”

“Well, if you don’t want to-“

“ _Please_ , Master.” She spoke the words through gritted teeth. “Please.”

“You can do better than that.” She heard a few more key presses on his end. “I’ve got access to the security camera in the corridor outside your cell. In front of the door, dear, on your knees. Look into the camera for me, and _beg_.” 

The Doctor thumped her head against the wall again, harder this time. The pain made her wince, but it didn’t make this any easier. She’d thought she was content with not knowing, for now. But the Master, always the Master- he pulled things out of her that she didn’t even know existed. She’d loved that about him, once. A long time ago now. 

She got to her feet, phone gripped tight in one hand, and walked over to the door. The camera was trained on the small window, a soft red light blinking rhythmically. 

“Ooh, there you are,” came the Master’s voice again. “Couple steps back, I think, and then down on your knees, there’s a good girl.”

The Doctor bit back a scathing response, fury rising in her chest. She was no one’s good _anything_ , and- and- even from lightyears away, the Master still found ways to make her blood boil. How he could ever have come to the conclusion that he wasn’t her equal, she didn’t know. No one could take her apart like he could. She hated it. 

She didn’t hate it enough to hang up the phone, though. 

Indignation seething in her veins, she took two steps backwards and dropped to the floor, the security camera still blinking at her when she looked up. 

“You look even angrier than you did when you knelt for me in 1834, and I haven’t even killed anyone this time,” the Master purred. “Is that what’s getting you so worked up? Can’t hide behind altruism this time, you’re kneeling for me because you _want_ something from me. Hold still, love, just taking a few pictures from the security footage for...later. Smile, would you?”

She scowled at the camera. The Master laughed. 

“Fine, don’t. You’re hot when you’re angry, anyway. Now- beg, Doctor. Beg me to tell you what I found.”

“Does everything have to be a game with you, Koschei?” She was looking directly into the camera as she spoke, and she heard his breath catch on the other end of the line. “If you’d just _talk_ to me. Just stop all of this, these _pointless_ games, and talk to me, I’d help you. I don’t think you’re less than me, not really. If there’s anyone I want by my side while I figure this whole Timeless Child thing out, properly...it’s you.”

There was a long silence. Long enough that the Doctor had to check her phone, wondering if the Master had hung up on her. He hadn’t. 

“Master?”

“That doesn’t sound like begging to me, Doctor. Last chance. You’ve got ten seconds.” His voice was perfectly level. Too perfectly. 

She’d stung something, he just wasn’t going to admit it. The Doctor sighed. He’d been considering her offer, surely that was the only reason he’d be quiet for so long, so why, _why_ \- why did he always have to do this?

“Please, Master. Tell me what you found. Tell me where I’m from. Please.” The Doctor looked up into the camera, her eyes wide, beseeching. Pleading him to listen to reason more so than to answer her, perhaps. 

“Mm...fine. Stay on your knees, I want to see you.” Another dark, humourless chuckle. “You want to know how I found the Kasaavin, Doctor?”

“You’re going to tell me anyway, aren’t you?”

“Fair. I found them when I was looking for _you_. Your people. Your biology, Doctor, it’s so similar to mine- I thought I could adjust my TARDIS’ settings to scan for Time Lords, but _interdimensionally_. And then I’d find your original planet.”

The Doctor had to admit, she was impressed with that. It was a clever move. 

“Huge drain on the power, of course,” he continued. “So my ship kept getting stuck. Happened to find the Kasaavin during one of these scans...apparently they share about 40% of their DNA with us, and my TARDIS picked it up. Fascinating, hmm?”

“My people,” she reminded him through gritted teeth. 

“Oh. _Oh_! Yes. Yes, of course. Your people. Didn’t find them. Not even a trace.” 

“What?”

“You heard me, dear,” he said, and the malicious smile on his lips was _audible_. The Doctor pressed her eyes tight shut, breaths shaking with barely controlled...something. Anger? Disappointment? The sheer _frustration_ of having hope given to her, and then snatched away again so fast?

Then, she remembered she was still in front of the security camera. She sprang up to her feet and stalked over to the corner of her cell, the Master’s laughter echoing in her ears. The Doctor threw her phone to the floor, pressing her hands over her ears, then her mouth, muffling a scream of frustrated misery. 

Every time. He did this to her every time. Why did she keep letting him in, keep talking to him, keep picking up the phone? She’d been doing so well. Staying calm enough to deal with her imprisonment for as long as necessary, despite her natural urge to _move_. Now, all she wanted was to break her way free of this cell and burn everything to the ground without looking back. 

By the time she lifted her head from her arms, gathered up her phone from the floor- screen cracked, right down the middle-, the Master had hung up on her. 

The Doctor wondered when he was going to call again. She already knew she’d answer him. 

**Author's Note:**

> so earlier today I got the image of the Master trawling through dimensions trying desperately to find the Doctor’s home planet stuck in my head, and it wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote something about it. comments are v much appreciated, hope you enjoyed!


End file.
